Week in Review–December 8th, 2012

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

DCRainmaker.com posts this past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this week.

The Queue posts:

The Queue is a place where I post quick galleries of products that have just started the review cycle. Here’s more from the onslaught of new products that have come in lately (tons more planned over the next 3-4 weeks). At the moment, these don’t show up in the main RSS feed since they are just quick galleries.

2) Interesting new dual-view (front/back) sports action came: Its popped up on Kickstarter and is backed by a 3-time Olympian (track cyclist). It looks interesting with WiFi and live-streaming enabled, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to bite the bullet and back it, as mid-2013 release really means late 2013 in Kickstarter-lingo. And late-2013 is really only a few weeks away from CES 2014, which is when all the good stuff happens. Still deciding…

3) Surfing the States of India: I wasn’t sure I’d find this interesting, but after getting into it a bit it’s actually kinda cool. A good read about a gaggle of guys trying to shoot an indie film about surfing where there is no surfing in India.

4) The Garmin GTU10 is on sale for $129: For reasons that are beyond me, I still have yet to write-up a product review on this, despite using it all the time for all sorts of stuff from races (triathlon and running primarily) to training to tracking my bike during transit. Anyway, good deal. In a related note, Garmin has made their fitness app – Garmin Fit – free this week as well (temporary I understand). While I don’t exactly recommend you buy their iPhone accessory, their app is actually not bad for live-tracking. It cost a few bucks per month, but it what I often use to stream ANT+ data (admittedly, with the accessory I don’t recommend you buy). (Free Garmin Fit App FYI via Nico)

6)Dr. DJ Patil on connected devices including health: I met up with Dr. Patil and had lunch with him the day before his presentation in Paris this week. He works as a Data Scientist in a VC funding group, and we had a great chat about the state of the industry and where the gaps and opportunities are. Below is the talk he gave at Le Web here in Paris (massive conference) this week.

7) ‘Sexy Bicycle Calendar’: Steve in a Speedo never fails my RSS feed. And this is no different. This is a calendar with professional cycling women (of all riding varieties), posing with bicycle parts as each month of the calendar. If you navigate your way to the actual calendar page, it’s actually pretty cool to look at their riding pic vs calendar pic. Look like totally different people (except, the tan lines, which are there on both). At any rate – this may be NSFW for some folks. And fear not ladies, if I see something of similar value to you, I’ll be sure to pass it along as always.

8) IOC suspends India Olympic Committee: This is a pretty interesting play from the IOC in response to some behavior on the India Olympic Committee’s part. What the shame here is that there’s a very likely case where athletes from India may be unable to compete under the India flag next Olympic (2014). Not really fair to take it out on them.

9) About Barometric altimeters: A pretty good quick post explaining barometric altimeters in sport and fitness devices, how they work, and where to get more detailed information about them.

Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners is perfect, or Tweet it at me) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?

The abandoned swimming pools is a great post. I love exploring that stuff.

My University (in the US) had an "Olympic" sized pool built in the 1970s. It's not longer in use and has since been hidden. As a freshman last year and sophomore this year, it is still my goal to locate it. This town could really use an outdoor full-length pool.

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

FYI: Also updated is the Android Sporttablet app (connects Garmin devices to tablet and uploads activities to GC) - now supports FR405/410 devices.link to play.google.com
App is free to try and then activated via in-app purchase.
Support from the developer has been fantastic to date.

Disclaimer: I am a beta tester for this app with FR410 and Asus TF101.

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

Indeed, very cool stuff. I've been looking at doing a post on it, but need an Android tablet. Trying to find a good tablet that's relatively cheap (that doesn't need to be hacked so it's easy for others to follow).

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

Hmm, not yet. Though, I meant to note that I was also looking for a tablet that had USB Mass-storage device driver support and permitted addition of the Garmin Edge 500/800. That there be the tricky part!

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

I've been patiently waiting for the GTU 10 write up. You teased us with back before your move. I like the sale price and it is Christmas so I may go ahead and pull the trigger on it. I'm on a Blackberry device (work provided, no apps) so this seems like the only good option to provide tracking when I'm out training/racing. Can you give me any cons (other than the time limit on the guest link) that I should be aware of. I'm still interested in the full product review too

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

Sorry! You nailed it, just the guest tracking fiasco (I still argue with them on that). Partially the limit, and partially because of the inability to have a general forever shared page. Beyond that, it's solid. I've heard someone say recently there's issues with geofences, but I haven't had a chance to double-check it.

Reply link does not work in your browser because JavaScript is disabled.Reply

5 Easy Steps To The Site

You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.

It turns our I’ve written a fair bit of stuff over the past few years – and after it disappears from my front page, a lot of it never really sees the light of day again without Google’ing skillz. Or a photographic memory…which I don’t have. I’ve taken a look back and found stuff that…continues to find a trickle of readers via web searches or forum links.

I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.